The Book of Acts, Part 5

Well, good morning again to all of you. It's always, always wonderful to see you. And I appreciate your nice singing and being able to help with the song service. That's clearly a huge part of our worship of God. Our thinking about what God is, what He's doing, how He's working with us, and how He has prepared a kingdom. He's preparing the kingdom. He's not just going to let it happen. He's going to prepare for it. He's prepared people of you that we see in the Old Testament who have been specifically prepared for roles in the kingdom of God. And I think we can also understand that He's preparing us. He's preparing us for roles of service. And that's an incredible privilege. A wonderful honor to be able to grow close to God in that way. And I want to continue going through the book of Acts today, but I'm going to cover something a little differently than what we have. Because, as you know, we've been following the maps. We've been following where Paul went after he was converted by God in Acts 9. He was brought to an awareness that he was wrong. That's the simple conclusion of what Paul learned. As his name was solved then, he learned, I'm headed the wrong direction. I need to turn around and go the other way. And I need to just listen to what does God want me to do. And, of course, as we have already studied, and I won't go through all of this, but on Paul's first trip, he established a number of church congregations in Middle Turkey. On his second trip, again we've had the maps that kind of detail where this was, he went back and re-confirmed with the congregations, at least some of them, what he had taught them, what he had shown them about Jesus Christ. And then he went on from there, he went up into Europe, up into Greece, up into Thessalonica, and up into Corinth. He established congregations there in that area on his second journey. And he wrote a book, a couple of books, the books of Thessalonians. Understanding those early books helps us as we read those and see what it was he was saying. On his third tour, where he essentially spent several years in Ephesus, and then from there he was either going and visiting people or he was writing, as he did, the book of Galatians, the book of 1 Corinthians, and later the book of 2 Corinthians, and later Romans. He wrote all of these. It appears during the time of his third trip or tour that he took through what we know of as Turkey and up into Greece today. And then ultimately his fourth trip is going to be a trip to Rome, a carnival cruise. He's going to be on a boat, and I'm going to go through that next time, so I'm only mentioning that that's what we find in the last couple of chapters in the book of Acts. That Paul is sent to Rome, he's in captivity, he is on a ship most of that time, and there is a lot of information that we could provide or we could think about as we will get to that next time. What I want to cover today is what we find in Acts 21 through chapter 26. I realize that's quite a large bit, but it is an area of the Bible that's very easy to read. It's reasonably clear as far as what was happening.

I want to point out two things about the apostle Paul and what God was doing with him and what he was doing for the church, what he was doing for Christianity. Because what we see in these chapters 21 through 26 of the book of Acts, again if you read through there, there are two things that I want to point out.

One of them is that God's whole Paul was going to send him to not only his own people, the Jews, which he did go to and always would talk to them first, but primarily he was sent to a Gentile world. He was sent to a world who was unfamiliar in many ways with the Bible, with the Old Testament.

They were unfamiliar with Judaism. They didn't know or have the same background that the nation of Judah had. But he said, I'm going to send you to your own people, I'm going to send you to the Gentiles, I'm going to send you before kings.

I'm going to send you before some major officials, and of course ultimately living under the domain of the Roman Empire and the current ruler or Caesar in Rome. Paul, I don't know, I'm sure he couldn't imagine. Who would I ever come before?

Well, in this exchange, when you read through that, and again I hope that you will, because we don't have time to read through the whole thing today, but if you read through Acts 21 to 26, just through those about six chapters, I guess, it shows what happened. It shows how it is that Paul was brought to be able to witness to his people, to the Gentiles, and before kings. Because in this little exchange, you see Paul coming before a Roman tribute named Claudius Liceus. You see him then brought before a Roman governor named Felix. You see him later brought before another Roman governor named Festus. You see him brought before a Roman king. This is kind of going up the chain of command here, a Roman king named Agrippa. And then finally, when he gets on the boat, he'll eventually go to Rome. And whether he eventually was to speak to Caesar, I don't know that that's what he did, but at least he talked of people who had been brought into the church who were of Caesar's household. And so clearly, whatever he was able to do for the sake of Christianity, he was able to do that among circles that he probably would have never imagined. And so that's a part of what I want to point out. The other thing I want to point out is whenever you see Paul in these chapters, in a sense, making the case for Christianity, you see what it was he was teaching. And you see what it is that can cause us and caused Paul, even though he had a lot of trouble, a lot of turmoil. There's a lot of turmoil that we can read about in these chapters that I've just referenced. There's a lot of trouble on the boat trying to get to Rome. But he didn't seem to be bothered by that. He seemed to have great stability. He seemed to have a connection with God that I personally want and that I want for each of us to have that stability. And so I think it's interesting to see what Paul says about what he taught, but also what he believed, what he lived by. And it's truly very amazing. So if we pick it up here in Acts 21, we see an account. At this point, Paul had returned from his final trip. He had come back to Caesarea. He had then gone down to Jerusalem. And he realized it was not going to be an easy trip going into Jerusalem. He had been gone much of the last 10 to 12 years.

He hadn't been really around the population there in Jerusalem. And yet, even though, in a sense, the church was kind of thriving there, and there were many who would come into the church and be a part of the Church of God, many of them had Jewish backgrounds. Many of them had understood that they kind of thought Paul defected. At least, I guess that wouldn't be the case from the standpoint of the church members. They would identify with what he did. But the Jewish nation as a whole, they looked at Paul as a defector. They looked at Paul as a traitor. And so we find in chapter 21 of Acts that Paul goes, he comes to the area, he comes to Jerusalem in verse 17, and the next day Paul went up to visit James, and all of the elders were present. And so here Paul is interacting with, in a sense, a home office church. He was interacting with the church in Jerusalem. James was a leading elder. Others of the apostles were scattered to other parts of the world. Peter probably was in and out of there. But here you find that they are told, or they tell Paul in verse 21, that the Jewish people here in Jerusalem have been told that you teach all the Jews living among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. They were trying to help Paul be prepared for what he was going to run into, because they didn't like very much. Apparently, they still hadn't grasped the significance that God was bringing Gentiles into the church. The Israel of God, as you see defined in Galatians 6.16, is made up of Israelites and Gentiles. The Church of God, the Israel of God, is made up of people of all nationalities. They went on to tell Paul, I think you ought to go over to the temple, you ought to perform this purification ritual with some of the other people who are going through that right now. And it says in verse 24, Paul will know that there is nothing in what they have heard about you and that you yourself observe and guard the law, which of course Paul did. He didn't do everything that the Jews did as far as their customs, their ceremonies, their sacrifices, but he still had respect for the temple. It was still existing. And yet he also did promote the law of God. He promoted that to the Gentile world that he went to. So you find as Paul goes to the temple, this creates a big problem. Here in verse 27, after seven days, they had almost completed what they were going to do there at the temple. Jews from Ephesus. Actually, it says Jews from Asia. These are the same Jews that caused Paul all kinds of headaches when he was in Ephesus, when he was in Galatia, when he went up to Thessalonica or Philippi. This same bunch seemed to follow him around and harass him terribly.

It says, they stirred up the whole crowd and they seized him, shouting, fellow Israelites, help! This is a man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place, the temple. More than that, he's actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled the holy place.

That was not true. That was not what Paul had done. They'd seen Trolemus, who was from Ephesus, I believe.

They'd seen him with him, and they realized he was a Gentile or a Greek, but he hadn't gone in with Paul. He hadn't done what they were accusing him to do.

After this kind of gets worse and worse, it's interesting to see that Paul runs into so much trouble from the Jews that, in essence, he has to be rescued.

He has to be rescued by the Romans.

Actually, in Acts 26, verse 17, I'll just point that verse out to you and tell you, Paul is explaining what he understood his purpose is.

He had been commissioned in Acts 26, verse 16. He said, And in verse 17, Paul is relaying this in one of his defenses. He says that God told him, I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so they may turn away from the power of Satan to God, from darkness to light.

And so, Paul fully understood that God may need to rescue him. And certainly, this is exactly what happened.

Here in chapter 21, again, verse 30, Verse 31, while they were trying to kill him, word of this came to the tribune, and that's one of the Roman leaders.

The tribune, in this case, was named Claudius Lycius. We'll see a little later.

The tribune heard of this, and so immediately, in verse 32, he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.

And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, of course, they stopped beating Paul.

Thank you. Thank you. You know, let up some. You know, they hated Paul. They hated what he was preaching.

They hated what he was converted to by Jesus Christ. That's all you can say.

Because they felt that he was demeaning them. Now, many of the Jews had become Christians.

They had embraced Christianity. They had come to understand Jesus Christ.

But certainly the high priest had not. And others of the leading officials in the Jewish nation had not.

And they were just rabid toward Paul.

And so here we find, starting in verse 37, that Paul is able to defend himself. He's actually, well, we can say, what does it say here in verse 35?

You know, Paul had come to the steps, and the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried away by the soldiers.

Again, the Romans had to protect him. They had to bring him into the barracks.

And in verse 37, as Paul was brought into the barracks, he said to the Roman tribune, May I say something? And so he starts discussing with the Roman tribune, I'd like to talk to these people. I'd like to be able to defend myself.

I know they're upset. I know that they're angry. I know they want to kill me.

But I need to be able to tell them what's going on.

And so in chapter 22, you find some very significant things here, because this is one of Paul's defenses. You actually find three or four discussions by Paul of what he understood God was doing with him.

And he says, in verse 3 of chapter 22, Look, I'm a Jew born in Tarsus, in Cilicia. You know, I'm a Roman citizen, is what he was saying.

And I've been brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. And I was educated strictly according to the ancestral law, and I am zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

He was talking to the Jews. And he said in verse 4, I persecuted this way, up to the point of death, by binding men and women and putting them in prison.

So here he describes the Church of God. He describes Christianity as he had been brought into it as the way, or this way. And then he describes how it is that he had been confronted on the road to Damascus, he had been blinded, and he had been shown that he needed to change course. He needed to be completely different.

And as he was sent then to Ananias, you see in verse 14, Ananias told him what it was that actually was going to be a part of his mission as a Christian.

And I think that we can identify, or we should identify with some of this.

Ananias said, then he said, the God of our ancestors has chosen you.

See, that should resonate with us if we understand that God calls and draws us to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

What Ananias was telling Paul was that God has chosen you, and in this case he kind of outlines several things.

He has chosen you to know the will of God. Now that's wonderful. That's absolutely fabulous.

For us to be able to come to know the will of God, to know what God's purpose for life is, to know how it is that He's able to transform us.

He goes on to say He's chosen you to know His will, to see the righteous one, to hear His voice.

For you're going to be a witness to all the world of what you've seen and heard.

See, that in essence gives us a description of what we're to be doing.

We're to be the witnesses of God's way of life, of knowing God, of knowing His will.

And we are then to be a vessel through which God can work. That's what he was telling Paul.

And if we drop down, I'm not going to go through all of this. It's pretty easy for you to read.

You can see what Paul's defense was, what he said.

He clearly had been against the church and now he was supporting the church.

In verse 22, down to mostly the end of the chapter, you see Paul being taken again by the Roman Tribune.

And it almost seems this is unusual because he's taken him, he's bound him, he's almost going to flog him.

But then Paul asks him, well, are you supposed to be flogging a Roman citizen?

And of course he's, well, I didn't know you were a Roman citizen.

And there's a discussion here in verse 25, 26, 27 about the Tribune realizing it cost me, in verse 28, a lot of money to be a Roman citizen. And Paul says in verse 28, the last part of it, he says, I was born a citizen of Rome.

I have certain rights and responsibilities. I am able to ask for those.

And of course this was going to lead directly to ultimately him going to Rome.

But in verse 29, the Tribune, this Roman Tribune Claudius, he became a little bit upset because he realized that since Paul was a Roman citizen, he had bound him that he could get in trouble for that.

And so he wanted to back away.

But in verse 30, since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released Paul and ordered the chief priest and the entire council.

That would be the Jews as well as the Roman council.

To meet, he brought Paul down and had him stand before him, and while Paul was looking intently at the council, here again Paul is being given.

He spoke to the Jews once. He's rescued again by the Romans. Now he's going to speak again to the Jews. He's going to talk directly to the high priest.

But Paul makes an unbelievable statement here in verse 1.

And I think this should be something that all of us think about.

Because here in verse 1, while Paul was looking intently at the council, he said, brothers or brethren, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God.

Now how could that possibly be true?

See, Paul's been converted here for 10 or 15 years.

He knew what God had done for him.

But clearly, before God intervened in his life, he had been out killing Christians, and he even admitted I was giving consent to the stoning of Stephen.

How could he say this? How could he say that up to this day I've lived my life with a clear conscience before God?

See, I think it's in...he makes a couple of statements that way over in chapter 24, verse 16.

He says, therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people.

See, now at this point you could say, yeah, I can understand, Paul, how you would feel, how you would, as you understood that God had converted you, that you're trying to promote the gospel and you are trying to teach Jesus Christ, and you are a servant, an apostle of the living God, that you could say, well, I'm doing the work of God today, but how can you say that I've got a completely clear conscience before God?

Because couldn't he think back? And even you see him mentioning and writing a lot of the things I did in the past were wrong.

But see what he said when he wrote about those things in the books that would make up part of the New Testament, he wrote about those things, he said, I did those things in ignorance.

He absolutely understood that he had striven to be obedient in every area of his life. This is why he could say, I have a clear conscience before God.

He was a Pharisee, he was a super Pharisee. He was not a slacker. He was excelling in everything, including getting rid of these Christians.

But of course when he did that in ignorance, he understood now that his conversion was real. It was absolute. His faith in God and what God was doing in him right now was unwavering. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind of God's forgiveness and God's mercy.

And see, that's something many of us need to be reminded of because we need to be able to stand before God with a clear conscience.

Yes, we do sin. We need to be forgiven. We have lived in sin at one time in our life. We did that in ignorance. We did not know better.

But God drew us to where he changed the course of our lives. And so Paul's faith in God was absolutely strong. And he strove to serve God now without reservation.

That's why he could say the things he did. That's why he could make the stand that he did. He wasn't afraid to die.

He says, I understand what's going to happen and I'm probably going to die. But I'm not trying to escape death. I know that my conviction and my commitment and my execution as far as serving God, that that is before God.

I am honestly doing that with a clear conscience. And that's why he could say what he did here in chapter 23 verse 1.

So, he's before Claudius here in this case. Paul, amazingly here, if you look in chapter 23 verse 6, Paul brings up a point that is a significant factor in his conversion.

And in our conversion, in our commitment and in our appreciation of God. What was it that Paul brought up? Actually, Paul brought up a topic.

He knew that the Jews were in conflict over this topic. He knew that some of the Pharisees believed in the resurrection and the Sadducees did not. He knew that. And so he used that to his advantage. It says in verse 6, when Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and some were Pharisees, he called out to the council, Brethren, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, and I'm on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.

This is what he brings up. And of course, this immediately divides the crowd. Half of them are for him, half of them are against him.

And the Romans are listening, and they're like, we don't know what's going on here. Because it is, in a sense, a kind of an argument over a topic. But I can tell you, if you read this section as I've asked you to, you will see that the resurrection of the dead is what gives Christians hope in God.

Our hope in God is that God is going to resurrect the righteous, and he's going to resurrect the unrighteous.

The resurrection of the dead is absolutely sure. Now, when God does that, what education he provides, what condemnation he may provide, if that is the case, if that's what people choose.

But the resurrection of the dead is extremely important. I've read that before, and I thought, why is he talking about the resurrection? He must just be trying to get them to fight each other, and in essence he was. But there was far more to it. Far more to it, as he will say a little later.

So here he is before Claudius, he's with the Jews, and down through the rest of this chapter, the Jews come up with a plot to kill Paul. They're trying to get him out of prison and have him transferred between, I don't know, a bunch of back alleys or whatever. They're hoping that they're able to jump him and kill him.

And he finds out about that. He tells the person that was in charge of him what the case was. He tells Claudius this. And in verse 23, actually he doesn't, but his nephew tells Claudius, verse 22. And Claudius dismisses the young man, Paul's nephew, and told him, don't tell anybody about what you've told me.

In verse 23, he summons two of the centurions and said, get ready to leave. 9 o'clock tonight, I want you to take Paul to Caesarea. I want you to take 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, 200 spearmen, provide mounts for Paul, take him safely to Felix the governor. And so, wonderfully, Paul is transported from Jerusalem, out of Jerusalem. Jerusalem has now turned out to be a headache for Paul.

Now, he has earlier wanted to come back there. He has mentioned, I need to get back there by Pentecost. You know, different statements that he has made earlier. Now, he's not welcome.

He's despised by the Jews because of what he believes, because of being a Christian.

And because, even though he observed and guarded the law, he didn't do circumcision and all of the other things that the Jews were demanding of the Church.

And so, you see Paul sent to the Roman governor, Felix. And I think it's just hilarious to read verse 26 down to verse 30. It's hilarious to read this political letter, because that's what this Roman Tribune is doing. He's writing to the governor, and he's telling him how he's been such a wonderful benefactor to Paul. And how he has been protecting him and helping him, and he feels like he needs to be here before. It's just ridiculous when you read it. Because he's the one who imprisoned him and who was going to flog him and who realized that, you know, well, I shouldn't be doing that. He really makes it sound quite different. And I won't take time to read through that. But you find that as Paul is now in chapter 24, as he is in Caesarea, he is accused of a number of false charges. Again, mostly by the Jews. You know, they bring up all kinds of false charges in verse 5.

Oh, actually, even though I mentioned the political letter that Claudius writes, it's almost even worse when you get into chapter 24, because the high priest is asked to come down to Caesarea, and he brings with him an attorney. That's always, you know, head in the wrong direction. No, that's not true, because many attorneys do necessary work. And yet, in this case, this attorney, you see him addressing Felix starting in verse 2 and going down through verse 8. And again, you can read that, and you can just see the flowery way in which he's presenting his case, trying to influence Felix. And since it's verse 5, we have, in fact, found this man to be, talking about Paul, a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world. Now, he's an enemy of the Jews throughout the world. He's a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. And of course, here they're calling the Church of God a sect of the Nazarenes, and he's even tried to profane the temple, and so we seized him.

And so, how much of that was correct? None. Absolutely none. Although, I guess he would be a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He would be an individual who is prominent in the Church of God. And so, you find Paul's defense starting in verse 10. Here in chapter 24, Paul is beginning to defend himself, and he explains even more. He's mentioned following this way, and I want us to start reading verse 14. Paul is going to make a statement about Christianity. He's going to define Christianity, in a sense, before this Roman governor, Felix, says in verse 14, This I admit to you, he said, you know, these charges are false, but this I admit to you, in verse 14, that according to the way which they're calling a sect, see, it's not some weird sect, it's not some unusual thing, it actually is trying, it's a group that has been called to Jesus Christ, and in trying to live according to the Word and Law of God, according to the way which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors. I believe, or I'm believing everything that's laid down according to the Law are written in the prophets. What we were reading earlier in the sermonette was in the prophets, mostly. It was in the prophesied information about what the kingdom is going to be like. He says, I believe, what we read in the Law and in the prophets, I have in verse 15 a hope in God, a hope that they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people. See, here's Paul's description. He says, I worship the true God. I worship His Son, Jesus Christ. I have hope. I believe the Law and the prophets. I have hope in God. And that hope is represented by the hope of the resurrection, the hope of the resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. And again, he doesn't define everything about that. You see much of that written about later in the book of Revelation or in other parts of the New Testament. But I think it's amazing to see just how it is that Paul expresses a hope in the resurrection. He expresses a hope in life beyond this existence. He expresses hope in eternal life and in God. And so he explains that I'm on trial because of my belief in the resurrection of the dead here in verse 21.

I'm called to stand before you. It's about the resurrection of the dead that I'm on trial today. And interestingly, the Roman governor, Felix, says in verse 22, chapter 24-22, who was rather well informed about the way, He adjourned the hearing with the comment, When Lysias, the tribume, comes down, I'll decide your case. And he ordered the centurion to keep Paul in custody, but to let him have liberty and not to prevent him, any of his friends, from taking care of his needs.

Even though he was under, you could almost say, protected custody, he was under Roman supervision. And yet, others, members of the church, could come and see and care for Paul.

And it says in verse 24, some days later, when Felix came, with his wife, Driscilla, who was Jewish. And so, that's part of why Felix was familiar so much with what the Jews taught, but also aware of those that they would describe as the sect of the Nazarenes, those who are following Jesus Christ. Because, it says he sent for Paul, verse 24, and heard him speak concerning faith in Jesus Christ. See, again, what is Paul preaching? What is he teaching? What is he living? What is he sharing? What is he witnessing to?

Well, his worship of God, his hope in God, his faith in Jesus Christ, and as he discusses in verse 25, Felix wanted to discuss justice and self-control and the coming judgment. Those were the things that Paul was talking to kings or leaders or rulers about, as he was predicted to do. And actually, you find here in verse 27 that Paul was there in Caesarea for two years. After two years passed, he was in this state of kind of semi-imprisoned. After two years passed, Felix was succeeded by Festus, so the new governor came in named Festus. And since he wanted to grant the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. But three days after Felix arrived, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and the chief priests bring this up about Paul. And so this next Roman ruler, Roman governor named Festus is brought into the same picture. Again, we drop down in chapter 25, verse 7, I guess.

And the governor, wishing to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, do you want to go back to Jerusalem and be tried before me then? Well, Paul says no. I don't want to go back to Jerusalem. I found that they really are extremely agitated toward me. And so he says in verse 10, I'm appealing to Caesar. I'm appealing to the Emperor's court, the Emperor's tribunal. And this is where I should be tried. I've done nothing wrong to the Jews, as you very well know. And now I am, if I'm in the wrong and if I have committed something for which I deserve to die, I'm not going or trying to escape death. But if there's nothing to the charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the Emperor. And so again, this was a right that he had as a Roman citizen. And Festus said, after he conferred with the Council, well, you've appealed to the Emperor, and so to the Emperor you're going to go. So ultimately, again, because of the way these things were working out, Paul's going to be sent to Rome. But what is happening in the meantime? Well, he's appeared before the Jews twice. He's appeared before the Roman Council two or three times now. We find in the remainder of chapter 25 and into chapter 26 that he appears before another, even a higher up in the Roman system. He appears before King Agrippa. Verse 13 of chapter 25, after several days past, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea to welcome Festus. So the king came down to welcome the new governor.

They talk about how they've got this guy in prison. They're not exactly sure. Actually, Festus says, we drop down to verse 26, he's talking to King Agrippa and he's telling him, well, this guy's appealed to Caesar, but I hate to send him to Caesar because I don't really have anything to charge him with. And maybe you can hear him and find some reason to send. Send him there. Verse 26, I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign, being to Caesar, about him. Therefore I brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after you have examined him, or we have examined him, I may have something to write, for it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.

Again, he was thinking a little bit clearly, and there's really no reason to send him because there's no charges against him that are certainly worthy of death.

So you again see in chapter 26, Paul's another defense before a different level of Roman ruler, King Agrippa.

And Agrippa, in verse 26 of chapter 25, he says to Paul, well, no, I've already read that, so that's not the right one. But if we drop on down to chapter 26, verse 1, Agrippa says, you have permission to speak for yourself, Paul. And so again, Paul is required to give a defense, in a sense, over and over again. But what has he brought up? What did he bring when he was talking to the Jews? Well, he brought up the resurrection of the dead. Now, that kind of stirred up the crowd, but he did bring that up. And before Felix, he brought up, I'm on trial because of the resurrection of the dead.

And you're going to find that he brings that up again here, as he is presenting his case before King Agrippa. Paul says in verse 4, all the Jews know my way of life for my youth. So he starts going back through the same story. He says, now in verse 6, he says, now I stand here on trial, on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly worship day and night. For it is this hope, your excellency, for I am accused by the Jews. Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God can raise the dead?

How many times does he bring this up? How much should we appreciate the fact that God is going to resurrect us? We look forward to being changed. I would love to be changed. I would love to be transformed when Christ returns. Let's see, if I die before that, then he's going to resurrect me. I want to be resurrected. I want to be transformed at that time. But see, our hope and our faith and our belief is in the resurrection of the dead.

That's why Paul has brought this up in each one of his defenses. And we want to keep that in mind because it does give us, it gives us stability. It gives us encouragement. Yes, we're living our lives today.

We want to do that with a clear conscience before God. We want to do that with stability and with encouragement. And yet, what Paul is facing here, I've been locked up, I've been condemned. And he again relates his conversion down in verse. I read part of this, I don't think, yeah, I did read part of this in verse 16.

Paul says, I was told as I met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Get up and stand on your feet, Paul, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen of me and the things of which I will appear to you.

I will rescue you in verse 17 from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I'm sending you, to open their eyes so that you may turn, they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive. So again, this was a part of Paul's Christianity. He understood his mission was to teach people to turn from darkness to light, teach people to turn from obeying Satan to obeying God. And he said, they may receive forgiveness. They may receive forgiveness of sin in a place among those who were sanctified by faith in me. See again, this was the way that Paul preached the gospel.

This was how it was. He preached faith in Jesus. He preached the kingdom to come. He preached hope in God through the resurrection. He preached forgiveness of sin. He preached being sanctified by faith. That's what he was telling them, these Roman rulers, that he was brought before. And of course, in verse 19, he says, After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared first of those in Damascus and then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea and the Gentiles, that everyone should repent.

Everyone should repent and turn to God, and they should do deeds that are consistent. Bring forth fruit that shows you are repentant. Do deeds that are worthy or consistent with repentance. So he was clearly proclaiming the fact that, people as they come into the Church of God, if they come into the way, as he described it, they're going to live a different way of life. They're going to have different priorities.

They're going to have different hope. What's our hope? Our hope is in the resurrection. Our hope is in what God is going to do beyond this life. And he says in verse 21, For this reason the Jews have seized me, and they're trying to kill me. And to this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here testifying, both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses have said have taken place, that the Messiah must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, He would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

Again, he says the truth of God in numerous different ways, but he describes what our Christianity should be and how we should have faith and how He was fully stable, fully settled in His commitment to Jesus Christ. See, that's why Paul could say, I've got a clear conscience before God. I was clearly wrong, but I was doing it out of zeal toward God in what I thought was right.

It turned out it was completely wrong, but I know God's completely forgiven me of that. It's done and over. And I stand before you today trying to be the servant of God. Of course, the Jews are not impressed. Or Festus isn't impressed. In verse 24, while he was making his defense, Festus says, you're crazy, Paul. You're out of your mind, Paul. Too much learning is driving you insane. Paul says, I'm not out of my mind. Most excellent Festus, I am speaking the silver truth.

See, he had a foundation that was very, very solid. He had a commitment to understanding repentance and forgiveness and conversion, understanding, being led by the Holy Spirit. He understood these things, and of course, he could mention many of them to these Roman leaders. And what we find here at the end of this chapter is just simply the fact that Paul even appeals to the king, King Agrippa, that don't you believe?

And of course, Agrippa answers in verse 28, says, you're so quickly trying to persuade me to be a Christian, Paul? And Paul says, well, whether quickly or not, I don't know, but I pray to God that not only you, but also everyone listening to me today might become such as I am. I would like everyone to come to understand the truth of God.

Of course, I don't think all of you want to be in these chains, he said, except for these chains. And the king got up, and with him the governor and Bernice, and they were leaving and said to one another, this man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment. But Agrippa says, to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to the emperor. See, that was a part of the plan of God. That was a part of, there were many miracles involved in Paul being rescued, first from the Jews, and then, you know, he was brought before kings in multiple levels and would ultimately go to Rome, but in a sense he would go there and not really have charges against him.

He would go there and actually you find when he gets there, the Jews don't even complain about him. They don't have anything against him. They don't want to believe him, but they don't have a charge against him. I guess the postal service didn't work as well as ours does. You know, we usually get stuff in several days. They hadn't heard anything. We'll get into that next time. But see, I think it's amazing to see, you know, the miracles that were performed as Paul was doing the work of God.

Now, he didn't always know what was going to happen. And clearly, I doubt that he fully understood until he was actually on the ship, as you see in chapter 27. You know, they start lining up the boat that, this is how I'm going to go to Rome. You know, maybe he understood that before then, but maybe God allowed him to understand that. But see, what also is amazing that Paul preached the truth of God. He says, I'm telling you the absolute sober truth. The truth that all of us need to repent, a truth that we need to have faith in Jesus Christ, a truth that we need to be stable in our commitments to God, and then growing in that faith.

We need to continue to be repentant. We need to do things that are consistent to show our repentance. And so, in essence, that's a living way of life.

But that also, I'm looking toward the Kingdom of God, and clearly, the resurrection of the dead enables me to truly have hope in God. And so, Paul had a stability that I think we find is extraordinary. And yet, it's amazing to see his defenses in so many different settings, as God brought in before those, and we don't know what God would bring us before. We don't know. We don't directly interact with a lot of people, perhaps, that we're trying to give them information. But in this case, this is how Paul was proclaiming the gospel as an apostle of God. So, next time we will go through his trip to Rome, which is also interesting, but you also find that once he was in Rome, he had time to write a number of letters, and we need to kind of have this setting for those letters, and the conclusion of those, which is in 2 Timothy, we'll end with that next time.